Leather button



Army/m W STRAUSS LEATHER BUTTON Flled March 9 1948 INVENTOR. WALTER 5TRAU55 May 23, 1950 Patented May 23, 1950 UNITED STATES PATENT OFF ICE- LEATHER BUTTON Walter Strauss, Bronx, N. Y., assignor to Stra'uss :Import:Corp., New :York, N. Y.

ApplicationMarch 9, 1948, Serial No. 13,769

3501aims. 1

This invention relates to new and useful improvements in the present method of making a button from flexible and compressible strip material; such present method involving "the use of a strip, as of leather, in make the button body, with such body built up by intertwining said strip on and with itself whereby various portions of the strip where they cross other portions thereof are interconnected with the latter basketweave fashion, drawing the thus self-intertwined button body into a fairly compact condition, and then subjecting said button body to high pressure die treatment .to mold and set the said :body into a button having usually the shape of the segment of a sphere. Then, customarily, thebutton is of circular outline, its back is plane and its front is convexly arched along all lines diametral to the button.

In practicing the method above referred to, it has to be kept in mind that the button when completed must have projected therefrom, at the back thereof, a flexible loop for attaching the button to a garment.

The difficulty has presented itself, in regard to this loop, or rather, so far as is concerned .meetin adequately the problem of securely anchoring the root portions of the loop in the body of the button. U. S. Patent No. 1,459,888, now expired, proposed that a terminal length of the strip self-intertwined to form the button body be projected and bent back on itself to provide the attaching loop. The hazard of having such a loop open itself by loss of the bent back .portion of the loop at the very end of the strip has led to the adoption of another expedient, now widely adopted.

This expedient involves the use of two separate strips; one being a longer strip for establishing the button body as aforesaid, and the other being a shorter strip with enlarged ends. This shorter strip is for being reversely bent on itself thereby to place said enlarged ends opposite each other, so that the shorter strip may be attached to the button body by insertion therein of said enlarged ends. But the proper insertion of the extra shorter strip prior to start of its final squeezin of the button body to its finished shape, and the proper maintenance of said extra strip in its loop establishing condition during such squeezing has increased considerably the cost and diliiculty of fabricating the button.

The object of the present invention is to provide an improved button, and one characterized by the fact that but a single strip is used, thereby to effect maximum possible cost economy in mak- 2 I ing the button, yet a button wherein there :is -retained all the security of anchorage of the attaching loop sought to be efiectuated by the use of an extra strip for providing said loop. 1

According to the present invention, a terminal portion of the single strip used is employed as in the patent aforesaid to provide the attaching loop, but this terminal strip portion, instead of having a width and thickness like that of the remainder of said strip, is narrowed longitudinallyand'for a'distance equal to the length of the loop, and 'suchnarrowing at its end adjacent the contiguous end of the strip terminates short of said strip end, therebyto provide a pair of shoulders to be caught and held "by another portion of the strip crossing said shoulders and participating in the formation of the back of the button. Preferably, in carrying out the invention, the button is preliminarily formed from interweav- 'ing the single strip on and with "itself as "above,

with saidstripnotyet"narrowed as just explained,

and then the strip is cut away, preferably at one side, to give it its narrowing; after which the loop is formed, the same is entered .at its free end into the button body which is now subsisting as fairly loosely self-intertwined strip, and the button is die pressed to final shape.

For further comprehension of the invention, and of the objects and advantages thereof, reference will be had to the following description and accompanying drawings, and to the appended claims in which the various novel features of the invention are more particularly set forth.

In the accompanying drawings forming a material part of this disclosure:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a strip of leather used for forming the button.

Fig. 2 is a similar view, showing the strip intertwined on and with itself as aforesaid, but with its basket-weaving shown quite loose to keep the drawing as clear as possible.

Fig. 3 is a top plan view of the finished button.

Fig. 4 shows the same in side elevation.

Fig. 5 is a bottom sectional view taken on the line 5-5 of Fig. 4.

Referring to the drawing more in detail, the strip of leather or the like is in Figs. 1 and 2 and as a whole marked l 0; and it may be well to state at this point, in aid of fullest clarity of disclosure of the nature of the invention, that Fig. 2

herein is substantially a replica of Fig. 2 of the Y aforementioned U. S. Patent No. 1,459,888, ex-

2,508,897 r e p, N

out in said patent, the self-intertwining of the strip is in the nature of a double knot.

Comparing now Fig. 2 with Figs. 3-5 of the drawing herein, the portions a, b, c and d of the strip 10 as thus marked in Fig. 2 provide respectively, the exposed areas a, b, c and d (Fig. 3) at the face of the finished button; the portion 3* of said strip as thus marked in Fig. 2 provides, in successive longitudinal subdivisions thereof traceable seriatim according to the numerical order of the exponents added to the reference character 1 in Figs. 3, 4 and 5, the exposed areas f F, f and 1 of the button; and the portion g of said strip as thus marked in Fig. 2, provides, in successive longitudinal subdivisions thereof traceable seriatirn according to the numerical order of the exponents added to the reference character g in Figs. 3, 4 and 5, the exposed areas g g g and 9 of the button.

The terminal portion p of the strip 10, becoming finally buried in the body of the button, is

hidden therein, and similarly buried in the body of the button are the shoulders m and n with the narrowed part k doubled upon itself and projected from the back of the button to provide the attaching loop. The button is shaped in accordance with the disclosure in the aforementioned U. S. Patent No. 1,459,888 or in any other desired manner so that the inner edge of the part 91 see Fig. 5, overlaps the shoulders m and n retaining the loop formed by the narrowed part is in position with relation to the finished button.

The cutting away of the material of the strip 10 for providing the narrowed part k and the shoulders m and it may be done either before or after the terminal part of the'strip which is to establish the attaching loop has been bent back on itself to establish such a loop.

While I have illustrated and described the preferred embodiment of my invention, it is to be understood that I-do not limit myself to the precise construction herein disclosed and the right is reserved to all changes and modifications coming within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by United States Letters Patent is:

1. A button comprising a single strip of flexible and compressible material intertwined on and with itself to provide a button body carrying an attaching loop at its back, said loop constituted by a terminal portion of said strip, said loop narrowed along its length to provide a, pair of oppositely facing shoulders marking the termini of said length, said shoulders crossed by a portion of said strip at the back of the button.

2. The method of making a button of the kind wherein the button body incorporates a strip of flexible and compressible material intertwined on and with itself, which involves thus intertwining said strip to provide a relatively loose such intertwining while leaving projected from the back of the button body a terminal portion of said strip long enough to be bent back on itself to form an attaching loop, cutting off part of the width of the strip at said terminal portion thereof to narrow said terminal portion longitudinally thereof for a distance to be coextensive with the total length of said loop to provide shoulders at the opposite ends of said distance, and completing the making of the button while embedding said shoulders therein behind a portion of the strip at the back of the button.

3. In :a button formed of a length of flexible and compressible material intertwined on and with itself to provide a button body having one end of the length of material buried in the button body, said length of material being formed adjacent its other end with a narrowed portion and shoulders at the ends of the narrowed portion, said shoulders being buried in th body of the button with the reduced portion doubled upon itself and projected from the body forming an attaching loop.

WALTER STRAUSS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:-

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,459,888 Heuman June 26, 1923 1,574,414 Ahlquist Feb. 23, 1926 1,700,169 Kramer Jan. 29, 1929 1,765,077 Kramer June 17, 1930 

